Tom Brady will join LeBron James, Drew Brees, Draymond Green and Kevin Love as an owner of a pickleball team, as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers star joined forces with tennis legend Kim Cljisters to buy a team. The sport, which is an outdoor racket sport, is growing in popularity, and a host of celebrities have already forked out to invest in teams ahead of a league expansion.
The Major League Pickleball (MLP) is looking to expand it's audience and has received a huge boost by the aforementioned stars. The previous season wraps up this upcoming weekend, where £300,000 is at stake for the winning teams. Next year, the tournament will hold six tournaments, with around £1.8 million in prize money available to winners.
Brady has been seen playing the sport with his children and has reportedly considered building a pickleball court in his garden, according to CNBC.
The legendary quarterback is set to retire at the end of the season, having originally done so earlier in the year only to return for one more year with the Bucs.
Brady, 45, signed a historic deal with Fox Sports to be an analyst for their NFL coverage - which will kick in whenever he decides to call time on his career. And reports suggest that the network is planning to have him from next year.
Brady is yet to comment on anything post-retirement, but Clijsters spoke of the pair's excitement and about buying the pickleball team.
She said: "We know that he loves to play pickleball and is very competitive. We can’t wait to get a game in and see where everybody’s levels at."
The former US Open winner added: "For me, playing tennis with my husband and my kids is not that easy, right? But when I play pickleball we can all have a fun game."
The MLP has stated that it's goal is to grow the sport to have 40 million players by the end of the decade.
